{"id":693274,"date":"2026-01-21T08:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/693274\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T08:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:25:13","slug":"former-dolphins-head-coach-mike-mcdaniel-is-coming-to-the-afc-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/693274\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is coming to the AFC West"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 20, 2026, 9:29 p.m. PT<\/p>\n

From the start when Mike McDaniel was fired by the Miami Dolphins<\/a> last week, he said he would rather take a good offensive coordinator job than a bad head coach position. And the two bits of news on him Tuesday show both were true.<\/p>\n

Shortly after it was reported McDaniel cancelled a scheduled visit with the Cleveland Browns<\/a> to interview for their head coaching position, the news came down that he is expected to take the offensive coordinator job with the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McDaniel had held a head coaching interview with the Raiders<\/a> on Monday when the Raiders were in South Florida to attend the College Football National Championship<\/a> game. But just as many teams were interested in hiring McDaniel as their new OC as head coach. And in the end, the appeal of joining an established team with a franchise quarterback was too much to pass up.<\/p>\n

The former 49ers<\/a> OC comes back to California, where he takes the job with the Chargers under Jim Harbaugh after they had just fired Greg Roman.<\/p>\n

And thus, another head coach candidate is scooped up, further thinning the field for the six remaining team still looking to hire a new head coach.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 20, 2026, 9:29 p.m. PT From the start when Mike McDaniel was fired by the Miami Dolphins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[95878,217,7,216,251,2087,6,15978,97498,95882,97970,95957,95942,95885,97085,95951,95895,95899,96090,95884,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-693274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-dolphins","tag-accessfree","tag-dolphins","tag-football","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miamidolphins","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflraiders","tag-sstsnraiders","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcalifornia","tag-tagcleveland-browns","tag-tagjim-harbaugh","tag-taglas-vegas-raiders","tag-taglos-angeles-chargers","tag-tagmiami-dolphins","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","tag-tagsports-coaching-training","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}